Terry o Quinn was amazing in BOTH stepfather's cant understand why they did a remake on a absolute phenomenal 2 movie thriller that are noth classics!!! Remake bad movie leave great movies like this alone. I became a Terry o Quinn fan after these movies and was sad he didnt receive more deserving roles his talent was worthy of. If you can own both 1 and 2 skip 3. Worth watching every year just to see how crazies done!!!

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

While the first is one of the most effective n well acted thriller, this one is an open and shut case of pure cheating aka cashing in on the success of its predecessor.

There is nothing new in this one but once again Terry O'Quinn's performance is the highlight.

Tension n suspense is zero in this one.

The plot - Jerry Blake, the psychotic n murderous fella survives the events of the first part and finds himself being institutionalized but Blake being a family man, finds it hard to stay away from his family and therefore he escapes from the institution and later assumes the identity of a deceased publisher and poses as a psychiatrist and soon begins courting a woman eventually winning over her and her teenage son but the woman's estranged husband returns, wanting to reconcile with his wife. Blake will not sit idle n watch his future family being snatched away from him.

Stepfather II begins with a quick recap of the ending of the first film, probably not the best move since we're immediately reminded of the fact that killer Jerry Blake (Terry O'Quinn) was stabbed through the heart with a great big kitchen knife. Usually there's no coming back from something like that, but this is a cash-grab sequel, and it proceeds to show us Blake alive and well (with just a scar on his chest to show his seemingly fatal wound),the killer now residing in a high-security psychiatric hospital. Dumb doesn't begin to describe it.

Of course, Jerry doesn't stay locked up for long, quickly making his escape and setting himself up with a new identity - Gene F. Clifford- in the peaceful surburban Palm Meadow estate, where he inveigles himself into the life of divorcee Carol Grayland (Meg Foster) and her son Todd (Jonathan Brandis). As in the first film, Jerry/Gene is looking to be part of a perfect family unit, but since such a thing doesn't exist, it's not long before he becomes disillusioned with his latest wife and stepchild, and thinks about moving on to fresh fields. The rest of this sequel is a predictable retread of the original, Carol's BFF Matty (Caroline Williams) becoming a victim when she gets too inquisitive, and Jerry going full on loopy for the finalé, once again coming a cropper, this time getting a claw hammer in the chest.

It's mindlessly entertaining nonsense, benefitting from confident handling from the always reliable Jeff Burr (director of the under-rated Leatherface and excellent anthology From a Whisper to a Scream) with another strong turn from O'Quinn, but at the end of the day, it doesn't offer anything new (and not that much in the way of gore). And I still wonder how Jerry manages to get married without the need for a birth certificate and photo ID.